Morning Brief: Facebook changes feed to focus on friends

What to watch today

At 8:30 a.m ET, the December reading on consumer prices as well as the December report on retail sales will come out, with economists looking for a 0.5% uptick in retail sales and a 0.2% monthly increase in prices excluding the more volatile costs of food and gas.

On the earnings side, JPMorgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), PNC Financial (PNC), and BlackRock (BLK) will all report earnings with most of the attention going to JPMorgan and any comments its CEO Jamie Dimon makes on the company’s conference call. This will also begin an earnings period in which investors will start to get some of the most concrete executive commentary about how the tax reform plan passed late last year by the Trump administration could impact results in the year ahead.

Facebook to emphasize friends, not news: Facebook Inc. (FB) on Thursday began to change the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed, the start of what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said would be a series of changes in the design of the world’s largest social network. Zuckerberg, in a sweeping post on Facebook, said the company would change the filter for the News Feed to prioritize what friends and family share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from publishers and brands. [Reuters]

Trump rebuff of immigration deal puts deadline pressure on talks: The struggle for an immigration deal is intensifying after President Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise proposal and questioned why the U.S. accepts immigrants from “shithole countries.” The debate is turning into a three-way skirmish, as a small group of senators offered the compromise that Trump spurned on Thursday over objections from Republican hardliners, with some Democrats fearing that their leaders may be conceding too much. [Bloomberg]

Steel probe findings sent to Trump: The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday said it sent President Donald Trump the results of its probe into whether steel imports threaten U.S. national security, but declined to reveal any details of its recommendations. In a statement that offered no insight into the investigation’s conclusions, the Commerce Department said Trump now has 90 days to decide “on any potential action”. The probe could lead to broad tariffs or import quotas. [Reuters]